Collapse is coming

All the signs are pointing towards collapse.

Masked, anonymous agents, driving unmarked cars, abducting people off the street without warrants.

This achieves two ends. First, it terrorizes the people. This creates high levels of anxiety and powerlessness: a cowed people is a compliant people.

Second, it invites amateur criminals to adopt masks and other elements of secret police cosplay. There have been reports of masked men trying to pass themselves off as ICE or police.

In recent days, two masked, bulletproof vest-wearing thugs, posing as police, tried breaking into a home in Texas. The homeowner, being a Texan, gunned them down and sent them to St. Peter.

What *I* believe Trump (and most likely, actually Miller) is preparing for, is an armed citizen taking a shot at these masked "ICE" agents. This will be their justification for calling a national emergency and deploying military forces inside the country, against the people.

Personally, I think the best path forward is to do just this, and to keep doing it. Martial law can be declared, but ICE agents still have to roam the open to collect people. Martial law will not stop them from being gunned down.

Of course, this means civil war by the federal government against the people, and lots of death. But, this, I think, will be what finally cleanses this nation. People have a choice: cower and live in fear, or fight and die in power.

It has happened in stages so obvious, even a caveman could see them.

The ICE deployment. Meanwhile, Trumpstein festers in the open.

TIMELINE

The ICE hiring frenzy. Trumpstein trending.

Opening a concentration camp. Trump asks why people are still talking about Trumpstein.

Texas takes up massive gerrymandering. A man throws an italian sub at ICE/Natl Guard troops.

Ghislane Maxwell gets a Trump deal to be moved to a minimum security facility, in exchange for acquiting Trump in a DOJ interview. An LA police officer shoots a citizen nearly point-blank with a rubber bullet.

The National Guard deployed in DC. People are making Trumpstein a loud, central element of their protests.

Which brings us to now: Trump is threatening to deploy the Guard to major, non-MAGA cities. Trumpstein is taking up all the air in the room.

It all points to war on the people. To deny this is criminal.

And what are we to do?

What ARE we to do???

Just do it, Newsome.

Masked, unidentified and unidentifiable goons, invading cities and kidnapping people, are nothing more than criminal goons.

Governors need to get creative with interpretations of state laws applying to official id of officers, kidnapping, terrorism, etc., to arrest these goons and jail them.

Throw them in a cell and build camps to house them, in a tit-for-tat. Hold them in dessert squalor while the cases work their way through the legal system.

Barring governors growing balls and taking action, the only thing to protect us from this scourge is for citizens to take up arms against the goons, themselves. People will die, but some of them will be the goons, and, as we all know, when one goon in a squad drops, the other goons grow cold feet.

I'm looking at you, Newsome. If you want to be president, show us how far you are willing to protect the people from a tyrannical government. Deputize every citizen willing to defend California.

DO. IT.

Defund ICE and DHS, like Bill Kristol says.

I agree with Bill Kristol (a sentiment I never thought I would express): ICE and DHS should be defunded. Furthermore, I feel DHS never should have been created (it was an authoritarian wet dream), and ICE is naught but the American Stasi.

I remember when DHS was created, and I felt then as I feel now, that it would be bad for the nation: we already HAD numerous security agencies, and the only failure of 9/11 was that the sitting president didn't read his daily briefing, on August 6, 2001, that said OBL was planning a hit on America soon. But, we were in the throes of 9/11, and that gave people with authoritarian streaks a headwind and a hard-on for the securitate.

Of course, many years needed to pass before a group of thugs took control of it and ratcheted up the Stalinist aspects, to see what it could REALLY do. And now, here we are, a toad in a pot of hot water, wondering how we came to be boiled alive.

I know I come across as a crotchety windbag, but I was alarmed about things 24 years ago, and found myself distinctly in the minority. Most people shrugged and accepted the creation of a security state as a fait accompli.

I am tired of always being right about how the right wing wants nothing more than to destroy America. But, again, here we are.

This ride is not for sissies.

I figure there are only three ways Trump will ever leave office: natural death, fleeing into exile, or dragged out by patriotic soldiers.

There is no way average people can make it happen BY FORCE: the stasi are too focused on kidnapping and, in all likelihood, spying on people. So, there is no way to form a group to take him down by force. Even if such manifested, he has sycophantic secret service and military thugs with machine guns to protect him.

Perhaps if a large enough crowd assembled outside 1600 Penn Ave, such that a limo cannot exit the grounds, he might catch a clue and attempt to Marine One it the fuck outta dodge to Andrews and then attempt to fly to Russia. My fear is that, were this to transpire, the powers that be would allow it, just to be rid of him, and not be motivated to shoot the fucker out of the clear blue.

I doubt that any military will ever even consider taking him out by force. The brass are ass-kissing pussies who deserve eternal KP duty, with random cycling into latrine cleaning.

With the War on America Bill that just got sent back to the House, I doubt that any Rethuglicans will grow a spine and vote against it, even though each of them will face unholy rage from their constituents, which will lead to their ouster, assuming the GOP allows elections in 2026, which I am about 55% sure will not happen at this point.

2026 is our nation's 250th birthday.

In 1976, I was a second grader making broken glass collages in celebration.

How will we be celebrating next year?

Who will rid me of this meddlesome tyrant?

The Corporatists have been trying to take control of America for a century, at least.

They wanted (and TRIED) to oust FDR, but failed.

They got Reagan in, though, and decided to slow-walk us into post-democracy America.

And we are very nearly there.

Talk about shutting down Social Security is a threat to the nation, body and soul.

I do not apologize for wishing someone would take their second amendment right seriously, and, according to the ravings of the extreme right, defend us from tyranny.

Because tyranny is here, and it is a fat target: either a fat fucking slimeball Trump, or his assistant Stephen Miller, and his huge fivehead.

Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution necessary.

And Trump and Miller need some violent revolution.

Spring springs eternal, eternally springing at Springtime: How I felt some optimism today.

I have little faith in the nation's ability to right it's course, at the moment. Whether you are crestfallen at the utter lack of leadership from Democratic leaders, or despondent at the superhuman ability of Trump to gut the government without any seeming resistance, or feeling despair like all the others that our collective voice is being ignored in most cases, and actively-suppressed, in others.

But I do see a light of hope.

Part of that optimism I have (what, wait, who am I and what did I do with, er, uh... me?) about the nation's immediate future, is that Modern American Gruppenführers, Associated (MAGA) know what Goebbels knew: get the lie out there big, fast, and loud, because time is the enemy, as word gets around about our own Naziing-around.

Well, Stephen Miller and Elon Musk (both descended from a long line of Nazis) and everyone else connected to this Trump admin KNOWS that you have to be quick, fast, and an early-riser to beat the sheer mass of the American people, and the chance that they will catch on to your game.

You do not have time to waste, if you are trying to topple a nation like the US. And every judge's order to turn around deportee planes, and every court order to re-hire federal workers, and every burning Wankpanzer in the news does only one thing: slow down the coup.

Spring stands to demonstrate this, very shortly. I have seen more reports of protests, many staged by constituent groups most-beloved by America, but also most insulted and injured by Trump and MAGA. Today, I saw that veterans were turning out in numbers for their own protests not as a member group, but the core group. And they are emerging in greater numbers as the temperatures (both actual and metaphorical) rise.

Spring is coming. It is when we, as a species, collectively are going insane with cabin fever, and are just waiting for that first good day to get the Hell out of the house, and to keep being out of said house.

Spring is coming. People have been sitting on a growing rage, and are feeling the need to express it, and make catharsis. This makes getting out of the house even more pressing an issue for Americans.

Spring is coming: students will be getting out of school, and the Spring of 2025 will shape them now and for forever: that time it thawed and they went outside to punch Fascism in the face to save the nation (only, now, there will be no culture war separation, but class unity).

Spring is coming.

Spring is coming, and I usually miss the starting gun: that moment, between maybe 4:12 and 5:46 AM, sometime in April, when all the leaf buds explode and we have a canopy, again.

Spring is coming, and the buds will be busting out, all over.

Modern Tips for Health and Happiness: Footy Pajamas.

I really dislike pajamas.

Mostly, it is the legs creeping up while I lay there. Every time I turn over, they ride up another half-inch or so, until it feels like I am wearing knickers.

So, I decided about a month ago that I had a solution: I would wear socks to bed, and tuck the ends of the pant legs of my PJs into them, keeping them in-place.

But then, my shirt would get bunched-up and twisted, so I tucked IT into the PJ bottoms.

And thereupon I realized I had created my own adult-sized footy pajamas, and I was at peace with it.

I think all the world needs footy pajamas.

Zuckerswerves: How We Are Skirting the Facebook Censorship of our hopes for a Trump ending.

What are some metaphors you use to get around Facebook censors, when addressing how Trump should make his final exit from the stage (see, there's one already!)?

Some that I like are:

1. Long drop, sudden stop.

2. Hemp rope ride.

3. Air dancing.

4. Actuarial advancement/acceleration.

5. Needs to be fitted for a hemp necktie.

6. Needs to stand by a window in Russia.

Got any creative ways to express what we are all, in our souls, hoping to manifest in the universe?

Do I at all regret this post in any way, whatsoever?

Not in the ever-loving least, brother.

Play Responsibly

 

On morons and, well, basically this is about MAGAts.

A friend who is a teacher recently posted a picture of science denial fallacies, etc. A really cool reference or instructional tool. I like to see such posts, as I am biased in favor of science and demonstrable facts. But, they also remind me that a lot of people are just stupid. And they like it that way. In fact, they LOVE being dumb as a stump. I have tried for years to try to imagine the mindset behind that, to no avail. It is akin to trying to imagine the concept of infinity, or dividing by zero.

They have had decades to address their own ignorance, and for free, no less! Decades to benefit from the distilled wisdom of over six thousand REAL years, across multiple cultures and traditions, expressed through the best educational system and the freest society in the history of humanity, and, in fact, of the Earth itself.

Yet, they embrace being morons, and double-down when you do so much as LOOK as if you are about to draw the slightest breath in reply to their inconceivably abysmal foolishness.

And, a truly puzzling thing, to me, is that so MANY of them have college degrees, multiple degrees, in fact. And, yet, somehow they have failed to learn a damned thing about LEARNING.

I am more and more amazed, as I get older, that humanity made it this far out of the caves.

What the Majority wants.

Unfortunately, what the majority really wants, in my view, requires abandoning identify politics (current Democratic Party MO) and culture war (current GOP MO) distractions, and focusing on class issues, as it really has become the haves vs. the have nots (particularly in terms of raw political power and government control).

Things like a return to a progressive tax structure such as the ones in place after the Depression and WW2. Such a change would benefit a WHOLE lot of people who now consider themselves to be just temporarily embarrassed millionaires. I certainly believe it would drive economic growth across the board.

And, as I will demand until my final breath, a vast enlargement of the House of Representatives, which, in my view, again, would stand to eliminate most of the issues related to big money in campaigns, as well as reflect a far more fair representation of the American body politic, through mush smaller, human-scale districts.

But, both of these require going cold turkey on power addiction, and on the parts of a lot of politicians. Thus, it stands little chance of happening outside of unprecedented extenuating circumstances.

Silver Linings from my Box o' Wisdom

I was just thinking, as I doom-scrolled the internet, that even though it is pretty dark, these days, there is some cause for optimism.

Front and center is the arcane course through the court system that bogs down attempts at dramatic, extra-congressional changes.

Next, humans, especially the dumb ones, are slow to buy a clue on anything that doesn't fit their personal, "lord-get-me-through-this-day-I-beg-you," narrative. We cling to our personal biases until they, or we, snap in two. Then, reality becomes clear as a bell, and changes can occur.

In this regard, I am, and have always been, optimistic that MAGA voters cannot ALL be brain dead. At some point, some of them are going to recognize that they were taken, as I often say, for chumps. I must assume many of them spent life savings, and then some, supporting Trump, and, now that the pain is hitting home, it must be coalescing in their brains that chumps they indeed were.

Which brings us to another human foible: our pride.

Many of those MAGA who realize they were played are NOT going to take it well. And, they aren't the types to be quiet when they feel burned.

Hell, lots of them are gong to be gun owners, and the only contact they can have with DC is through their reps, who are now refusing to hear them in town halls.

This means lots of shot-up storefront GOP offices.

It is also obvious that Trump isn't meetng a single campaign promise that they repeated for him endlessly all campaign. I dare say that an insulted former supporter is going to be inclined to re-examine what they were told, and stand aghast at it all upon such reflection.

So, a slow system, a slow-to-learn population, and a prideful population that takes being punked pretty badly. What a wonderful combination.

All this, and reminding myself that we cannot ever see the end of the storm from the heart of it. We simply have to remember that storms pass.

Like Winston said: When you are going through Hell, keep going!

I have a feeling MAGA splashback could be a brutal, if entertaining and cathartic, thing. And I think it is coming.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I am showing rare optimism, so enjoy it while it lasts.

To Hell with MAGA, Friends or Family.

Let me repeat myself: MAGA are unreachable.

They have chosen to be unreachable.

They embrace their unreachability.

They have committed themselves to the embrace of selective ignorance as to their complicity with and/or active engagement in the banalities of workaday evil, the largest example of which is voting for candidates who promise to pay the rich on the savings incurred from denying help to the poor and oppressed.

And I know for a damned fact that many of you are friends with at least one of these people, or related and in contact with them.

I am told it is hard to just turn your back on an old "friend," or a family member. When it comes to bad faith actors, and any embrace of evil, I find it the easiest thing in the world. I don't know why. I just find it easy as falling off a horse to kick someone to the side if they prove to have been acting in bad faith all along.

No matter the thickness of the blood, there is no excuse for supporting those who would have you drown to create elbow room for a rich man in the lifeboat.

People have argued that this is absolutely the wrong approach to take. I argue that they are closing their eyes to the reality and demonstrability of evil, embraced.

Anyone and everyone who voted for Trump in this past election KNEW he was a bad person. If they didn't THAT IS ENTIRELY AND SQUARELY UPON THEM: they have had decades in which to simply be passively open to the best educational system the world has ever seen, and yet have learned not a god damned thing.

Trump wasn't new on-the-scene, either: this was his third presidential campaign, meaning every voter had twelve years to get to know this fascist sonofabitch.

And yet, they chose him over you and what you hold dear.

So people remain connected for what reason?

Studies have shown that people committed to a wrong idea are unlikely to be swayed by demonstrable evidence.

And, time is of the essence.

I figure we have less than a year to stop the nation from failing. The fiscal year ends this Fall, which is when new federal spending levels take effect, and all manner of shit will hit the fan (assuming the fan isn't already shit-encrusted, by then). Certainly, federal funds to states for social programs will take a huge, if not fatal, hit, as states tighten their fiscal belts and scale back or eliminate programs for social good and public health.

And this will be happening at the one-year mark before the midterm elections. There will be great pressure on GOP reps to stay the course, or face real physical threats from MAGA. If the heat gets too hot, do not assume for a fucking second that Trump won't impose martial law and simply postpone elections indefinitely. And the moment he will have to start really acting will be when, in November, people start looking forward to throwing him out of office with the rest of MAGA one year later.

Out of office, to be quite blunt and honest with you all, Trump is a dead man walking.

So, why are you still in contact with people who support him?

Sometimes children require harsh correction, but we embrace them afterwards because they have no agency and knew not what they did.

Adults only learn by falling and hitting their face on a boulder when they make a horrendous error.

Let. The. Fuckers. Learn.

Mere suggestions, for Democratic leaders.

First suggestion: begin the long-delayed transfer of leadership from the corpses to those still living.

We've done it your way long enough.

You cannot win political campaigns in this environment with wordy, policy-thick ads, read by septuagenarians in reading glasses. 

Those leaders must retire to the backbench, and allow more connected politicians to take the lead.

Nothing against you, really. You had your run, but now, you must do what Joe Biden did, after great pressure FROM YOU yourselves (if I may say so): admit that you aren't the ones to continue leading, and turn over the keys to the new members. There are fiery leaders in the House already, and many more in state houses who are on the verge of making the leap to the federal level.

Make way for the new leaders and, please, enjoy retirement.

Second suggestion: use ads like knives, not boxing gloves.

Every Democratic ad, from now until Trump is gone, must involve a logo-like graphic on the chyron, and it must be as crudely offensive to Musk and Trump as possible under FCC regulations.

There are so many to choose from. First to mind is the hacked HUD video, showing Trump kissing and licking Musk's feet. The graphic could switch from a focus on the kissing and licking, to the look on Musk's dumb AI-generated face.

And, you can always just flash images of Musk wearing his shades indoors, a sign of ketamine abuse. In fact, you might flash them, with the caption, "Ketamine abuse? Just asking questions!" Or him at the beach with his fishbelly-white gut hanging out, giving us all snowblindness, switching between images of a rocket exploding or penile implant ads.

You have got to get serious with these clowns. Now is NOT a time for policy wanking. Now is the time to save the nation. It is not the time for old approaches.

They have made it a fistfight, we must make is a knife fight.

Ungentlemanly things will need to be said and done.

Third suggestion: organize progressive "security" groups

The message has been sent, but have you read it? A liberal citizen speaking at a GOP town hall in Idaho was abducted by a private security force without uniforms or other identification.

No one could remember exactly WHO hired them.

Like fuck they didn't know.

They have now officially turned security forces AGAINST YOUR BASE.

It is now demonstrably apparent that liberal voices at town halls need physical protection, as well.

Of course, you cannot just show up and say you are there as security, because that would be laughable.

However, if you have volunteer speakers ready to be escorted by a lawfully-organized security force issued TO them, each individual might go in with two security officers accompanying them.

So, Susie Homemaker, all in gingham and lace, carrying a basket of apples, and all sweet and pure, might enter with a question in mind about Trump/Krasnov cozying up to Russia, and what they have on him. She is escorted to the mic by security, and escorted back to her seat afterwards.

If the locals object, flash the official badges from your organized force and state that THEY made this necessary.

They might need sidearms. Or not.

Legally-issued, of course.

This would be a good progressive billionaire project, also.

***

So, yeah. A few little suggestions.

A Public Service Announcement from this broadcaster: don't call them Swasticars.

Please, don't call them Swasticars.

They are Teslas.

Not Swasticars.

Swasticars imply the swastika, which was a symbol of Nazism.

Swasticars are something you shouldn't call them.

Or wankpanzers, either. That insinuates that the owner/driver is masturbating in the vehicle, or sees it in some strange paraphilic manner. Also, that they are a Nazi.

Those all hurt Melon Husk's feelings. It drives down sales of Swasti--I mean, Teslas.

You know, the guy who makes Nazi salutes ON ACCIDENT. His fee-fees get hurt.

So, remember, never refer to them as "Swasticars" or "wankpanzers."

And certainly never refer to them this way in perpetuity on your social media.

So, remember, don't say "swasticar" or "wankpanzer."

Swasticar.

Wankpanzer.

Don't.

Moving forward with D, E, and I: hindsight is 20/20.

DEI has become the whipping boy of the right. As always, while the left was busy telling everyone: DEI GOOD! DEI GOOD!, without actually defining DEI, the right gladly took the cue and defined it for them, into an electoral and policy cudgel with which they continue to effectively pound Democrats at this writing.

[Hint: if you have to use an acronym in your campaign, you really have TWO campaigns: a campaign defining THE ACRONYM, and then the subsequent campaign USING the acronym]

The same has happened with the concept of being "woke." Each perfectly describes something clear FROM THE INDOCTRINATED, ACTIVIST LEFT, but not from other, more pedestrian, less activist perspectives. Without some kind of "rollout," to bring others up-to-speed, lefties hamstrung themselves for a race they ought to have won, easily.

What DEI-allied interests might have done all along was to roll it out, one letter at a time, in a marketing campaign. Kind of like the old Ad Council sort of ads. First cycle: Diversity (1-to-3, 15-second commercials), with examples. Second cycle: Equity (1-to-3, 15-second commercials), with examples. Third cycle: Inclusion (1-to-3, 15-second commercials), with examples.

Roll it out over a year or two, so people understand some simple examples from above, and are able to internalize them. Evaluate the results and gear it up for campaign time.

Would it work?

People of a certain age: how many of us remember "Give a hoot, don't pollute," "The Crying Indian," Smokey Bear, and others like that? Schoolhouse Rock?

Do we still trash the highways and rivers, or burn down forests regularly?

And it has been, what, fifty years since they initially played?

In addition to leaning far too heavily into identity politics (culture war bullshit, instead of the actual, unfolding class war at-hand), there has been an enormous failure on the part of the left to coherently advocate and promote novel concepts to new and disaffected voters.

It has been foolish for progressives and other activist lefties to assume that the center (and other generally-disaffected factions) share their lexicon and read from the same newsletters. Thus, in their use of DEI as shorthand, which has been given no linguistic value to other voters, they go into battle unarmed and unarmored. A complete "self-own."

So, how much is a basic, national, public interest ad campaign of maybe three-to-nine, fifteen-second commercials, spread over a one-or two-year campaign?

Tell me. I don't know. Then maybe we start a gofundme and recruit production staff.

There, that's three grand for my consultation fee. Thank you, I'll take cash or venmo.

Eric Trump OPENLY WARNS that they "can get so much worse."

So, Eric (the gummy, dumb one), posted a tweet, for twenty minutes, that warned enemies things will get much worse for people denying "The American Golden Age," and sounding not even a wee bit fascy at all.

I think it is important to note a few things, here.

First, that it was posted, at all.

Second, that it was taken down relatively quickly, but not quickly enough for the message to NOT get out.

Third, that speed of deletion makes for what Reagan would call plausible deniability, and Eric could claim it was posted in error by a fired staffer or what the fuck ever.

This was an order to stand by, exactly the way that Donald's "It's gonna be great!" tweet was, weeks before Jan 6.

This is a warning and no one is identifying it as so.

Dead to me:

ABC News

CBS News

Washington Post

New York Times

Forget something?

While you are never forgetting, on this day of selective remembrance, remember this: over 47,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, are dead, and Donald Trump (friend to war criminal Netanyahu) wants to run who is left off the land. That is genocide. That is a war crime.

So, please, when you post this treacly shit about "never forget," expecting my tears to well up, remember that you are actively forgetting a holocaust happening in your own fucking time, perpetrated by the same people who killed three dozen American sailors in 1967.

Never forget? Never again?

Try to mean it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Israel-Hamas_war

Sigh...

I don't know about any of you, but it gets exhausting, after a while, looking around at where society has gotten itself, and then, again, choosing the path of keeping your yap shut and NOT screaming into the wind, "I FUCKING TOLD THE FUCK OUT OF YOU FUCKERS FUCKING YEARS AGO! AND NOW WE ARE FUCKING FUCKED! YOU ARE FUCKING WELCOME!"

The bullies pushed too hard.

Bullies, and bullying, come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, color, and gender. Bullying exists in a variety of forms across the spectrum of patho-psychology, from the largest DSM-V-identified conditions and diseases, to the smallest of immeasurable slights in the quantum world that is interpersonal experience.

For decades, we have allowed bullying to fester, under the guise of capitalism and competition, and some vaguely-defined notion of American exceptionalism. Somehow, bullying almost always manages to keep itself just BARELY on the side of acceptability and "plausible deniability" (a phrase given to us by the Reagan administration, go figure). A lot of the time, it is assisted by both the knowing and unknowing fellows of the bullied person or persons. Whether the assistance is recognized or not, it is there, and any lack of recognition is, usually (in my opinion) a sort of chosen ignorance.

The little elementary school student who takes cuts in front of his or her disabled classmate, and the fellow two-dozen classmates who stand by, doing nothing. The middle schools girls who loudly titter and audibly badmouth the unpopular girl amongst themselves in gym class. The high school boys who manage to game the system, working together to cheat their way into multi-valedictorianship, leaving three-hundred other students wondering what THEY did wrong in their honest hard work, and the teachers who never seemed to fucking wonder, "why do these five boys continually surpass all others, by such a large degree, and always seem to be in the same class, and in the same work group in each class? I guess we will never know."

The co-worker who is not above stealing another's lunch from the work fridge, and the co-worker who knows, but dares not risk their income by making a stand. Or, the fellow employee who will "forget" to share crucial workplace information.

The person who buys a Hummer because they stand a better chance at survival if they ever cause, er, I mean, GET INTO, an accident. Or, the driver of the Tesla who believes right turns from the left lane are signs of independence and freedom (certainly not gross negligence and ignorance). Or the buyer of the Cybertruck (no explanation required).

Why in the name of your Lord and Savior does American society ALLOW this continual hailstorm of bullying, safe from balance or recompense? Little bullies grow up to be health insurance CEOs, willing to trade a slow death for a few dollars for every life lost. 

Little bullies grow up to be political leaders, aided by their simps who believe that , someday, with enough grit, hard work, and well-placed bullying, they, too, can be the top bully. 

Little bullies become police officers (but, be honest, you always knew that). Just mentioning this because to leave it off would be irresponsible of me.

And, yes, bullies also have kids. But the kids have been molded in an atmosphere of bullying and cruelty (just like dear ma 'n pa), well-positioned to become the next bullying generation, and stand to inherit their bullying parent's millions of dollars in bloody bully money, so fuck off with that spurious argument. Lots of kids are parentless because of some bully, somewhere (health insurance CEOs are MVPs in the bully world), exacting their small or large measure of bullying on an weak and defenseless fellow human, all for the sake of the almighty fucking dollar.

All the while, society shrugs 350 million pairs of shoulders, and sighs that "nothing can be done, because what can *I* do. Nothing has ever been done, isn't BEING done, and why should *I* be the one to do anything? After all, *I* am doing juuuuust fine, right now. Ain't no one coming for ME. No paycheck-to-paycheck, here; I have at least TWO paychecks between myself and living under an overpass on I-75."

America, you fed, diapered, coddled, mollified, passed, hired, promoted, recommended, encouraged, and elected bullies and their bullying. Do not be surprised when the bullied decide they have had enough. And, please, do not fucking claim that anyone rejoicing is celebrating murder.

Because applauding what Luigi Mangione is accused of doing is not "celebrating murder," it is celebrating a long-suppressed American sense of justice, a long-forgotten self-defense of the bullied against the bully. It is a restoration of balance and order. It is a shoring-up of the fundamental tenets of American freedom.

And, I will celebrate that every fucking time it happens. Each time, I honestly sleep better that night.